I want to support my FLGS. I stopped by Thursday and went through their drive-thru and bought a copy of Star Wars Rebellion that’s been on the shelf for over a year.

I wanted to buy more to help them out. I asked about ordering some extra Legion units and some Armada expansions since FFG said their warehouse was open and shipping released items. My FLGS told me their distributor was totally shut down so they couldn’t order anything.

Anyone else tried to order anything? For you store owners, any ideas where my FLGS can get FFG products?

I used to work in board game distribution and it's tough as the market (in North America) is controlled by only a few distribution companies. There isn't a lot of wiggle room at the moment short of buying products at or above MSRP (from other brick and mortar or online retailers) then reselling them which after taxes, shipping and labour will likely result in breaking even at best, or even a loss. I don’t see it happening right now. Personally, I've just bought into Clone Wars to have something to do while I'm off work and at home. I'm lucky that as I live in big city (Toronto) there are multiple places that carry Legion. I got my Dooku, B1s, P1s and a pair each of upgrade packs from one store, Rex from another and I got a pair of core sets on Amazon. It's a tough time right now and I'd love to get B2s P2s and the Tanks but to be honest I'm more concerned that the supply of masks don't get cut off from coming into Canada.

If you are bored, buy STUFF.

If you to support them, buy GIFT CERTIFICATES.

My flgs said they should be able to start ordering again in 2 weeks. I don't know if that will change again or not, but it seems as though there is some global or regional control or organization

Buy gift cards and just wait for 2 months until the crisis is over. At this point supporting your FLGS basically means that you need to wait until there is a restock.

I really want to help support my local stores, but I'm pretty sure none of them are open. A local comic shop was forced to close by the health department yesterday. My main game shop shut down weeks ago.

1 hour ago, buckero0 said:

My flgs said they should be able to start ordering again in 2 weeks. I don't know if that will change again or not, but it seems as though there is some global or regional control or organization

My FLGS said Alliance was shut down. Since they are the middle man for FFG, FFG stuff can’t flow through.

22 minutes ago, Staelwulf said:

Buy gift cards and just wait for 2 months until the crisis is over. At this point supporting your FLGS basically means that you need to wait until there is a restock.

Would you buy a gift card from a store that told you they weren’t gonna make it?

24 minutes ago, Staelwulf said:

Buy gift cards and just wait for 2 months until the crisis is over. At this point supporting your FLGS basically means that you need to wait until there is a restock.

Waste of money... you can’t guarantee they’ll still be around. Either buy from them if you can product that is there, or hope for the best that they will still be there on the other side.

I am genuinely worried about the LGS I frequent. I’ve done what I can to help them but with a mandated closure by the state not much I can do now.

1 hour ago, drail14me said:

Would you buy a gift card from a store that told you they weren’t gonna make it?

No and I wouldn’t worry about supporting them either, if they said that. My purchases would be too little too late.

You could make sure the owner and family have food to eat, water to drink etc.

If they file for bankruptcy, you could support them if/when they open a new store.

There are other ways to support someone.

34 minutes ago, TauntaunScout said:

No and I wouldn’t worry about supporting them either, if they said that. My purchases would be too little too late.

It’s our only game store. Got to help some.

24 minutes ago, buckero0 said:

You could make sure the owner and family have food to eat, water to drink etc.

If they file for bankruptcy, you could support them if/when they open a new store.

There are other ways to support someone.

You confuse me for someone that has lots of money.

29 minutes ago, drail14me said:

You confuse me for someone that has lots of money.

If you're really worried they'll go under before you can use a gift certificate, but they're all outta Legion stuff, load up on hobby supplies and scenery kits.

41 minutes ago, drail14me said:

You confuse me for someone that has lots of money.

$50 of food and water go a lot longer than buying $50 worth of product. I'm just saying if things are that bad for this store owner, let's focus on what's important (food, water, shelter, etc.) and not worry about the store itself.

If we had lot's of money, we'd all just buy our flgs and run them the way we would want.

2 hours ago, ScummyRebel said:

Waste of money... you can’t guarantee they’ll still be around. Either buy from them if you can product that is there, or hope for the best that they will still be there on the other side.

I am genuinely worried about the LGS I frequent. I’ve done what I can to help them but with a mandated closure by the state not much I can do now.

The point is to improve the odds they will be around. If they get no money from customers, that might be significantly lower odds. That said you should only give them money you can afford to do without. I also know that justifying spending money on a gift card is a bit harder to do than physical product depending on any financial partners you may have.

I'm lucky in that I haven't had any loss if income or increase in expenses, so I'll probably be putting some of the $1,200 stimulus check I get in a few weeks on store credit, in addition to donating some to reputable healthcare charities.

So I've mulled over the idea of trying to potentially support a business through these times by pre-ordering a few items like Padme and Cad Bane and but I am dissuaded by the idea that in the event the store does go under that I'll be out $100 (or more if I get carried away).

Might just be a case of checking with a store beforehand, I just don't want to go in with no prior knowledge or unreasonable risk.

4 hours ago, drail14me said:

Would you buy a gift card from a store that told you they weren’t gonna make it?

Nope. But where I am from we have a somewhat working welfare system so that stores can easily survive a few weeks of shutdown. OP asked what he could do to support his FLGS. And that is still the best way. Or do you have a better suggestion how he can support his store in that situation?

There are also a lot of things a store owner can do to still get some money. My store owner had the time to open up an online store and he delivers orders personally on the same day free of charge as long as the adress is in the same city. Deliveries are still allowed in most countries.

Buy Dewbacks! Many places have them in stock ...

18 minutes ago, DewbackScout said:

Buy Dewbacks! Many places have them in stock ...

I just did this, good call. I have been wanting a second for a while so I grabbed one and another set of Tauntauns.

2 hours ago, Staelwulf said:

Nope. But where I am from we have a somewhat working welfare system so that stores can easily survive a few weeks of shutdown.

Few weeks? It’s going to be longer than that...

Also, I can assure you the American welfare system is completely broken. It’s been squandered and wasted during the good times and now the people needing temporary help cannot get it. Small business owners are the back of the line as far as the welfare system here goes - in fact many cannot even attempt to sign up for unemployment

1 hour ago, Crawfskeezen said:

I just did this, good call. I have been wanting a second for a while so I grabbed one and another set of Tauntauns.

Yay, Dewback! Boo, Tauntaun!

My local has always had a strong mail order business. The owner has basically laid everyone off, and goes to work running the mail order business alone. When this first started he dropped my order off on my porch, but now he's so busy he had to ship my order to me instead. It helps that they don't just sell games. They sell toy soldiers of all kinds, including gaming minis. And lots of tangentially related things like strategy boardgames, MTG, model airplanes and ships, etc. I actually think a sliiiiight majority of their business is in selling expensive pre-painted fragile "toy" soldiers to collectors who just set them up in well lit bookshelves.

They're also a great source of cheap plastic bagged army men, cowboys, dinosaurs, farm animals, knights, etc.

2 hours ago, TauntaunScout said:

My local has always had a strong mail order business. The owner has basically laid everyone off, and goes to work running the mail order business alone. When this first started he dropped my order off on my porch, but now he's so busy he had to ship my order to me instead. It helps that they don't just sell games. They sell toy soldiers of all kinds, including gaming minis. And lots of tangentially related things like strategy boardgames, MTG, model airplanes and ships, etc. I actually think a sliiiiight majority of their business is in selling expensive pre-painted fragile "toy" soldiers to collectors who just set them up in well lit bookshelves.

They're also a great source of cheap plastic bagged army men, cowboys, dinosaurs, farm animals, knights, etc.

TBH I don't know how happy I'd be supporting a business where the first reaction to a crisis is to sack all their workers. It's all very well to lament the lot of the poor FLGS owners, but the till monkeys have rent to pay and mouths to feed as well.

1 hour ago, Yodhrin said:

TBH I don't know how happy I'd be supporting a business where the first reaction to a crisis is to sack all their workers. It's all very well to lament the lot of the poor FLGS owners, but the till monkeys have rent to pay and mouths to feed as well.

Their FIRST reaction was to close in-store gaming and offer shipping discounts for locals who couldn't make it in to shop.

Their SECOND reaction was to close the store but keep a skeleton crew to fill mail orders.

But then the state said they had to stop having workers come in. They're kinda the definition of "not essential". If it wasn't owner operated, the mail order side of the business would be closed too.